Wednesday, August 31, 2011

No, though the title may suggest as much, this post is not a colorful depiction of our school-morning routine. Happily, it is a photo-full account of Beans's ice cream themed birthday party! With minimal commentary.... Hooray!

I always intend to post our theme parties here, but then I get bogged down in detailing the budget, locations of products, my general philosophy of parties and motherhood and the meaning of life. This time? Here's the party. And here on my Pinterest board, you can find a collection of the sites that inspired our party.

Enjoy!

The Invitations: We were all set to painstakingly make our own invites using multiple sheets of scrapbook paper and oodles of glue. Then we found these. On clearance. 10 for a dollar. Thank you, Hobby Lobby.

The Decorations: Beans helped with all the decorations this time around -- she is five, after all.

The Games:
In addition to ice cream themed coloring pages I had waiting when guests arrived, we also played pin the cherry on the cone and used our Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker to create crazy flavors that only a five-year-old could love. Hint: lots of mix-ins.

The Food:
I like the 2-4pm party because it isn't a meal time, which makes for easier food planning for potentially choosy eaters. We served fruit and cheese and crackers. And cake. And ice cream. With toppings. Lots. Of. Toppings.

And yes, those are Babybels and Bugles.

The Cake: We had some game-day challenges with the cake -- primarily humidity and poor time management. Still tasted good.

The Favors: Originally, Beans wanted to have a gumball themed party. (seen here.) Then she decided on ice cream, but was stuck on these adorable favors. (seen here.) They were so cute and easy (and cheap!) to make, we decided to include them anyhow. The kids were each able to take home a pint-sized container of ice cream they made during the party and load each gumball machine with his or her desired toppings.

And that was that. A fun time was had by all. Minimal ice cream was dripped on the floor. And Beans thanked me for the "very best party ever." Win, win, win.